Historical Documents – Luke Warmer Diary Entries

Luke Warmer (pseudonym; OC 53). Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives.

While students spoke freely about their heterosexual relationships and conquests, Conservatory student Luke Warmer (pseudonym, OC 53) confided almost exclusively in his diary, which he began at age seventeen after the death of his father. In his Oberlin entries, he described his trysts and attractions in great detail and mused about everything from music to human behavior to the nature of sin and homosexuality. The following diary excerpts provide a rare glimpse into one non-heterosexual student’s life in the late 1940s and early 1950s.